The Effects of Enriching and Impoverished Environments on the Brain
“We can enhance human health and performance through specific spatial characteristics that increase therapeutic and health-generating capacities for optimal health and well-being. This is known as environmental enrichment.”
Environmental enrichment was first studied by Canadian psychologist Donald O. Hebb in 1947. In an experiment with lab mice, he provided one control group with larger enclosures, toys of various material and colors, and running wheels, while the other group received only standard cages. He found that the mice in the enriched environments lived longer, had fewer behavioral issues, were physically healthier, and performed better on cognitive tests than the mice in the regular cages. Hebb’s research pointed to the influence of the environment on well-being, intelligence, and longevity and gave birth to the field of environmental enrichment, which looks at the therapeutic and health-generating capacities of the built environment.
Lauremont School Bayview Campus main entrance, Farrow Partners
In 1960, American neuroscientist Marian Cleeves Diamond published evidence demonstrating that the brain changes through experiences and improves with enrichment, a process known as neuroplasticity. The brains of mice were studied after exposure to enriched cages, regular cages, and impoverished cages.
The brains of the mice in the enriched environments had better enzyme cholinesterase activity and increased cerebral cortex volume, and that they formed thicker cerebral cortices containing 25 percent more synapses, a process of renewal known as synaptogenesis. The cerebral cortices, the outer portion of the brain, of the enriched environment mice also grew by 6 percent compared to those of the mice in regular cages, while the cerebral cortices of the mice in impoverished spaces actually shrank.
Lauremont School Elgin Mills Campus dining hall, Farrow Partners
This pioneering research proved that the brain can rewire itself and create new pathways as a result of environmental stimulation in daily life. Donald O. Hebb and Marian Cleeves Diamon’s research has influenced the salutogenic approach to Farrow Partners’ architectural design. Learning environments for example benefit from this body of research by providing enriching and nourishing spaces for students to be educated. Examples of environmental enrichment in learning environments include Lauremont Bayview and Elgin Mills campuses.